It is very important that a bearing is installed correctly to realize maximum bearing life. This is important for all bearings, but especially crucial concerning large size bearings. Up to now, there are several methods and designs for mounting and dismounting bearings onto shafts.
Depending on the bearing type and size, mechanical, thermal or hydraulic methods are used for mounting. For instance, when mounting a bearing with a cylindrical bore onto a cylindrical shaft, it is common to heat the bearing in order to increase its inner diameter and then crimp fit the bearing onto the shaft. This procedure may be complicated, expensive and also time consuming. This is the case when using induction heaters, which may be costly and bulky. Furthermore, it is often difficult to dismount such bearings.
There are also bearings with tapered bores. These bearings are often mounted on a tapered seating on the shaft. By driving up the bearing onto the tapered seating, an interference fit is obtained. An advantage with such a mounting is that it is possible to reach the preferred interference fit. On the other hand, a disadvantage may be that it is costly to make the tapered seating. In some applications, a separate sleeve with a tapered seating is used for mounting the bearing. This leads to more complicated handling, since an extra component is used. Furthermore, the size of the bearing application may increase.
Thus, there is a need in certain applications, such as in wind turbines, to be able to mount a bearing with high precision, to have a compact solution and to easily be able to dismount the bearing.